Rome (Marked Men #3)(66)

“I’m worth it.”

Her eyes flashed all those colors at me when she looked up at me. She dropped a bunch of little kisses along my jaw and hooked her pinkie finger in mine.

“It’s about time you realized it. Now tell exactly how you ended up owning the Bar.”

We stayed naked and sprawled together while I tried to explain Brite’s madness and my good fortune to have so many people determined to save me from myself. By the time we got around to dinner, it was ice cold but it was still the best thing I ever ate because she made it and because soon I was going to have her all to myself in a place all our own. Happiness wasn’t something I remembered bright and clear, but this feeling, it was powerful enough that I understood why men went to war over it, fought to the death for it.

CHAPTER 13

Cora

I was running late. I had already called the guys at the shop to let them know they would have to open the doors without me. I was scrambling to pull on a pair of cute, glittery flats and tame hair that was all spiked up and out of control from Rome’s hands. He had risen with the sun and gone running with Ayden. I don’t know how he did it, because after his startling declaration, a drab dinner, and about five minutes of TV, he had decided that was enough and took me back to bed for the rest of the night. I was sore, totally worked over, and scared out of my ever-loving mind.

He had taken Ayden up on an offer of a ride so that he didn’t have to wake me up. Well, that’s what he said, but I was pretty sure he would rather ride a mule to and from places than ride in the Cooper. It was just one of the things about him I was pretty sure I loved right back. I just couldn’t tell him that.

Love had broken me once. It gave me unrealistic expectations and had changed me on a raw and fundamental level. What I felt for Jimmy didn’t hold a candle to the emotions, the wealth of feeling, Rome Archer evoked in me. The big, gruff soldier had worked his way into places I didn’t even know existed. I was filled right up to the top with him and I was really afraid if I told him how I felt, all those emotions would overflow and neither one of us would know how to clean up the mess. I didn’t want to be without him, but I wasn’t ready to hand my heart over to him carte blanche either.

Having a man like Rome use the L-word was a heady thing. All the great things that made him who he was, his strengths, his loyalty, his care, his unwavering conviction that I was who he wanted for the rest of forever … it would be so easy to just give myself over to him completely. I was so scared about what would happen if it didn’t work out that I just couldn’t do it. I could only hope the big guy would be patient with me while I tried to unravel it all in my head. There was a lot going on up there—the baby, moving in together, him taking over the bar, and being totally sex drunk on him and his ridiculous body. A girl needed a minute to catch her breath; only I didn’t get one.

Just as I was running out the door my phone rang and I couldn’t ignore it because it was my dad. I stopped and took a seat on the front step of the house. I kicked my legs out in front of me and steeled myself for the typical interrogation I got when I hadn’t talked to him in over a month.

“Hey, Daddy.”

“You staying out of trouble, sunshine?” My dad was a gruff, take-no-crap man, but I never doubted for a single second his undying devotion to me.

I looked at my boobs, which were way bigger than they had been a month ago, and at the round swell of a belly that I had never, ever had before.

“Not exactly.” I wasn’t quite sure how to break the news to him. When I had fallen apart after Jimmy, my dad had done his best to put me back together, but there were just some things a girl’s dad couldn’t fix for her and a broken heart was one of them.

I heard him sigh. “So you saw that the wedding is off?”

I was clicking the toes of my sparkly shoes together and patting my tummy and only listening to him with half an ear.

“What wedding, Daddy?”

“Cora, are you even paying the slightest attention to me?”

“Yeah, I just have a lot on my mind. Things have been crazy here. You should come visit.”

He laughed and it sounded like rusty pans banging together.

“There’s no air there, baby girl.”

He wasn’t wrong. So I smiled and trapped the phone between my cheek and my shoulder.

“I met a guy, Dad.”

“Oh, Cora.”

I laughed at him. “No, Dad, you’ll like him.”

“I doubt it.” He huffed and puffed like any good dad who never wanted to admit his daughter ever had sex did.

“He’s different. Not like Jimmy at all. He was in the army.”

“You’re dating a soldier?” He sounded so incredulous I debated being seriously offended.

“I’m dating an ex-soldier, but more than that, I’m dating a really good man. He’s special, Daddy.”

“That’s all I ever wanted for you. And with Jimmy calling the wedding off to that girl, I’m happy you have someone so you aren’t tempted to contact that piece of shit. Let that dog lie exactly where you left him.”

I almost dropped the phone. I had been so busy with Rome, so caught up with the baby and trying to figure out what I was going to do next, that I hadn’t given Jimmy or the wedding a single thought, let alone spent a single second Internet-stalking him.